Glare report, 9/23/04: Trying to get a handle on Jack

[pegkerr]

Words: 175
Stopping because: I am stuck and I am literally nodding off over the keyboard
Notes: Still stuck trying to write a scene I trying to write yesterday, where Jack gets introduced to Ingrid (at the farmer's market) and I think, okay now, here's where he pulls out the charm but I can't think of a single thing for him to do that is calculated to charm a six-year old. Again, this is that discomfort about Jack: I am at a total loss to think of how he reacts to anything, and I don't know how to write a guy who is a trickster who oozes charm. I said yesterday that I don't know how to write a simple declarative sentence because I got to the point where Solvieg hears him behind her and turns to him and--and what, for heavens sake? I put him on the stage and he is a mute puppet who refuses to say anything. Do I have to totally rethink my perception of who/what he is? How?

Will try to read some more of that book on writers' block.

Mood: Still frustrated, but with a twinge of pride that yes, I did sit down and glare at it again, despite how crappy I think it is. Note please that for months that I have thought is crappy and so have avoided doing anything on it. Now, I have had a shift in my emphasis and so I sit down every night and contemplate how crappy it is, but I'm actively trying to do something about it! This is progress, people!

Please be aware that my reports will probably include quite a bit of whingeing for awhile until I get this beast moving again. You have been warned. But at least I'm trying!

Comments

[jbru.livejournal.com]

Is it for Jack to do the charming of Ingrid? If he is a trickster and acts as one would, wouldn't that charm a six-year-old?

Which is to say, have you tried working out what Ingrid naturally finds charming in Jack rather than trying to force something charming out of him?

[aome.livejournal.com]

Trying is great. *waves pompoms* You're thinking and working and whether you keep every word, it's still moving forward.

Can you draw from experience of when a stranger meets your kids for the first time, and is trying to charm them? Praise their appearance (including "she looks just like you, the same beautiful brown eyes..." remarks), something vaguely clever they've just said or done, ask for directions they can provide and praise that, something like that?

By the way, I recall a meme once about pulling out your wallet and describing its contents, or describing what's on your nightstand or desk, as a window into someone's personality. I think you had indicated it could be useful to develop your book characters and get in their heads. Have you tried that? What's on Jack's nightstand? What's in his wallet?

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I have visions of Vikings leaping out of his wallet. I have obviously been exposed to far too many Capital One Card commercials. Augh.

[madlori.livejournal.com]

What else are we for but to whinge to? Such is our calling. Surely you wouldn't deny us the fulfillment of our grand and t00by destiny.

If a character isn't speaking to me, it generally means that I haven't given him a) a purpose, b) a personality or c) both. It's easy to think up a guy who's a trickster but oozes charm, but harder to deliver that. I find that it's easier to start the character going and THEN find out taht he's a trickster who oozes charm, or whatever he really turns out to be. Maybe he doesn't really ooze charm. Maybe instead he's a trickster that sneaks his way into your good graces while your back is turned.

[naomikritzer]

The most foolproof way to charm me, when I was six, was to fold me an origami animal. A man on an airplane folded me a crane once: I kept it for years.

For a trickster, here's what I would suggest: have an obnoxious grown-up be rude to Ingrid (by cutting in line in front of her, say -- this happens to kids constantly. Or by snapping at her for something she wasn't actually doing.) Jack charms her by wreaking some slightly childish revenge on Ingrid's behalf, and making sure she sees, though no one else does.

[naomikritzer]

Also, I would say, good tricksters are a pain in the ass to write. At least, they are for me, too. The depressing fact is that it's not much fun to get tricked. (By the same token, "thieves" in fantasy novels are often portrayed as fun and cute. I've had stuff stolen from me, and did not think this was a fun, cute sort of thing to have happen.) Anyway, the solution I used recently (I wrote a trickster story a few months ago) was to provide the trickster with a series of deserving victims, because it's only fun to watch mean tricks played on someone who genuinely deserves it. But it's STILL hard to come up with clever, funny, interesting-to-read-about tricks for the trickster to use. I wound up googling con men and reading about a bunch of different classic cons. That helped, though even there, 9/10ths of the cons were pretty boring, along the lines of, "Steal checks out of someone's mailbox and write a bunch of bad checks."

Anyway, my point here is, you're writing something hard, so don't beat yourself up because you're finding it hard.

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

Maybe he oozes charm and Ingrid just gives him a look. Kids are pretty good at seeing right through an act. ;)

Are there any charmers around -- even irritating ones -- who can serve as a model? (I mean, my personal reaction to people who try to be charming is to avoid them like the plague, because I always feel that I'm being played. But then maybe I worked in corporate too long.)

Is Jack trying to charm, or is he just naturally that way?

There are meanings and meanings in "charming." Does Jack charm those around him just by being who he is, or is it a willed act, even perhaps with some compelling magic behind it (whether he recognizes it or not)? Is he one of those guys for whom everything just seems to fall into place?

Just tossing out thought bubbles. I think the key is to get him to talk to you.

(And hey, 175 words is 175 more than I wrote today! Go you for digging in and working!)

have you tried?

[griffinjaye.livejournal.com]

Peg--

Apologies if this is the eightieth time you've heard this, but have you ever heard of/read/done "the Artist's Way"? It's great stuff about getting past writer's block. Also "the Right to Write" by the same author, Julia Cameron, has some nuggets.

All about being willing to push through bad art to make good art, etc. etc. etc.

Regardless, I think you will be fine. Like all droughts, this too shall pass.

Cheers-GJ

Re: have you tried?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've read The Artist's Way, and I thought much of it was good, although not all of it. I've done a number of the exercises, too. I did the collage exercise, and that was great! I worked really hard on it, and it was such a thing of beauty that I laminated it and have it hanging in my office. I may post it online some day.

I did the morning pages for quite awhile, but although she swore up and down that they did the trick and unblock the block, they just didn't work for me that way. I sort of resented them because I was already doing a page a night every night in my own journal, and have been for thirty years. It took me a half hour every day to do the morning pages, and god, I have so little time that it seemed like time I couldn't spare.

And then one day it occurred to me to think: you know what? I managed to write two novels already without doing morning pages every day. And so I stopped and haven't regretted it.

[red-queen.livejournal.com]

Yay you. The perfect is the enemy of the good (I forgot who said that, but I have to remind myself of this regularly.) Or, to phrase it differently, it's hard to revise something that hasn't been written.

I thought your idea of writing a silly, possibly throw-away, scene was excellent. It got you back into the book. (Would it work to "interview" Jack, a la Letterman or something? Play with the idea of finding ways to get him to talk to you?)

Keep on keepin' on.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

but I can't think of a single thing for him to do that is calculated to charm a six-year old.

Maybe ask your daughters what they think might work in such a circumstance. They're closer to being six than you are, after all. Go to the experts.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I forgot to say, I like the origami animal suggestion. Very architectural.

[vass]

Peg, my reaction to your usericon and the subject "Glare report" made me sit up and go "Yay! She's working on it!" I am actively looking forward to your whinging about this novel.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the support!

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

I always think kids have control of situations like that, particularly if the adults involved are trying really hard to impress them or their parents. Maybe you should try some kind of role reversal, where Jack, normally so charming, feels like he's sliding around on ice himself. The harder he tries to win this kid over, the more it fails--because kids hate condescension. (Unless they are stupid kids. But I remember hating it, and adults would try to bribe me, and I would be suspicious of their motives, because adults always seem to want something from something.) And when he finally stops trying, maybe that's when he's able to charm Igrid. (I don't know your chars, but I hope that's how they sort out, because that's how I read it.)

I also like jbru's suggestions--that instead of conciously trying to trick Ingrid herself, or charm her, he sets off to use his skills on other people, and she notices that and tries to emulate him in some way.

[misia.livejournal.com]

Whingeing about one's creative work is, I truly do believe, one of the highest purposes for which one can use LJ.

And so I say: Whinge! Whinge mightily, Peg! For with each grumble and groan, I get to grin a little to myself and thinkHeh heh heh, Peg's back at work! She'll get there yet. Attagirl!

[kate_nepveu]

I suggest watching Bugs Bunny.

(No, I'm serious. Maybe it will get you to say, "well, but Jack's not like _that_" in a concrete way, and if not, at least it might make you chuckle.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

As a parent, what charms me is when an adult acknowledges and treats my son as a person, more than a child. He usually is charmed by that as well. When they ask more sincere questions than "how old are you? how's school? what do you like to play?" when they actually give direct and sincere attention to him, not as a child, not as my son, but as if they are honestly interested in getting to know them.

I don't know if I'm articulating it right, but if Jack treats her like a young lady rather than a little girl, really, that goes a long way. I find the most charismatic people to be those that seem able to focus so sincerely on each person they deal with. It sucks when it's just an act, but it's hard not to fall for it when someone makes you the center of their attention, and seems to automatically know your insecurities or doubtings or frustrations and plays on them, in the sense that they turn it around (by not treating you as too young or too old, or making you feel beautiful, or intelligent or charming yourself). Flattering you at your weakest spot without it seeming like flattery. They seem to sense that those little holes one has inside and fill them up, though sometimes (when one is deceptively insincere) in a superficial or sneakily self-serving way. But it's hard to see through it, because you are getting acknowledgement that you may not even realize you crave inside.

Eh, I'm rambling. I don't know how to really explain what I mean...

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I love the whingeing glare reports. I don't know; perhaps this is a peculiarity among writers, but I genuinely love reading other people's trials and tribulations in the writing process. Makes me feel like one of a tribe. :)

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Good! I'm glad people don't mind, then. I'll keep making them!

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

I am at a total loss to think of how he reacts to anything, and I don't know how to write a guy who is a trickster who oozes charm.

I wish I could introduce you to a former boyfriend of mine, but as he's living in New Orleans now that's rather far away from either of us.

One sure way to get a child's favorable judgement, I've found, is to physically put yourself on her level. Stoop or kneel or whatever is necessary got get your eyes on the same level.

MKK